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Following The Isolationist (1999),
a collaboration with DJ Vadim,
the Antipop Consortium rejuvinated hip-hop with their debut album,
Tragic Epilogue (2000), that branched out towards the new aesthetics
of "glitch" music (as in Autechre).
Producer Earl Blaize's disjointed arrangements (reminiscent of early electro
productions) propelled the trio of vocalists (poet "Beans" and former
filmmakers "High Priest" and "M Sayyid") towards the almost psychedelic
heights of
What Am I.
via the oneiric Your World Is Flat,
the futuristic Lift,
the decadent 9.99,
the free-form collage of Eyewall,
and especially
the atmospheric Monster Sex, wrapped in glitchy static noise.
The weakest element is the rapping itself. Neither the voices nor the lyrics
are particularly enticing.
The monotonous narrations of Laundry, Sllab,
Heatrays,
etc.
are the problem, not the solution.
The arrangements only partially redeem the words. Even when they are inventive,
they sound shy and thin.
Their "digital hip-hop" became even more ambitious on
Shopping Carts Crashing (2001), although the real songs mostly failed
(M being the notable exception) and the best was to be found in
the brief instrumental intermezzos and in a couple of futuristic tracks
(Excerpt From The Forthcoming Epic, Systaltic Quiescence).
Arrhythmia (2002) was much more conventional and accessible, almost
"pop" despite the name of the consortium
(Human Shield).
Tracks:
1. Contraption 0:58
2. Bubblz 3:26
3. Ping Pong 2:42
4. Dead ln Motion 4:18
5. Mega 2:24
6. Silver Heat 3:14
7. EKG 0:30
8. Ghostlawns 3:24
9. We Kill Soap Scum 3:14
10. Z St. 2:51
11. Traum 2:22
12. Tron Man Speaks 1:57
13. Focused 2:27
14. Conspiracy Of Myth 3:34
Human Shield 4:30
Beans' solo album Tomorrow Right Now (2003), containing the single
Phreek the Beat, adopted a more intellectual stance, further abstracting
his spoken-word style and pinning it against intelligent instrumental hip-hop.
Shock City Maverick (2004) is much more straightforward dance music
(You're Dead Let's Disco, Papercut, Shock City Maverick, A Force of Edge, Death By Sophistication).
Beans'
Thorns (Adored and Exploited, 2008) is more organic than its predecessor
but also less vital, and End It All (2011) felt a bit obsolete in 2011.
Beans, High Priest, and M. Sayyid reformed the
Anti-Pop Consortium for
Fluorescent Black (Big Dada, 2009), their first album together in six years,
that also featured producer Earl Blaize.
The general course is the same inaugurated with
Arrhythmia (2002), a "poppy" one (relatively speaking).
Hence the emotional Born Electric and
Volcano.
There are still jarring experiments with beats and arrangements, notably
New Jack Exterminator, Capricorn One and
Lay Me Down, but that doesn't sound like it's the point anymore.
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